


in the ashes

by picklebridge



Series: Commander Cody Week 2021 [4]
Category: Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Origins, Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Character Death (offscreen), Chasind, Crossover, Gen, Grey Wardens, Ostagar (Dragon Age), fantasy meet cute
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-19
Updated: 2021-03-19
Packaged: 2021-03-28 18:28:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,121
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30143745
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/picklebridge/pseuds/picklebridge
Summary: “Guess it is true what they say,” Boil mutters behind him. “The Grey Wardens really will take anyone.”Despite his red-rimmed eyes, Fives grins. “Looks like the set up to a punchline. If two mages and an elf walk into a tavern…”-When the battle of Ostagar goes sour, Cody grabs what brothers he can and escapes into the Wilds. Trouble of an unexpected sort is waiting for them there.
Relationships: Boil & CC-2224 | Cody, CC-2224 | Cody & CT-7567 | Rex, Obi-Wan Kenobi & Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi & Anakin Skywalker & Ahsoka Tano
Series: Commander Cody Week 2021 [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2213964
Kudos: 17





	in the ashes

**Author's Note:**

> written for @commandercodyweek day 6: AU, and this one’s a dragon age crossover, folks, to fit the ‘high fantasy’ subprompt. I don’t have much to say about this one apart from that it is completely self indulgent and the epitomy of that meme “it makes no damn sense, compels me though”. i might expand this one into a proper story, but for now here’s...whatever the hell this is lmao.

“I could have chopped your fucking head off!” 

That’s his first thought, once his blood stops roaring in his ears. The bloodspattered, ginger haired man in front of him sidesteps the sword at his neck and gives Cody a jaunty grin, though there’s a brittle edge to it. 

“And yet you didn’t! What a happy accident.” 

Cody doesn’t lower his sword. He’s not sure he would call this either an accident, or particularly happy. It’s not exactly a mystery as to how either of them have gotten here, or why anyone of this man’s calibre would be stranded in the middle of the Korcari Wilds. He really hadn’t been interested in running into another living soul - not until they’d gotten much deeper into the Wilds, anyway, and particularly not anyone from Ostagar. He’s not going back to Ferelden’s army. He’s not letting his _brothers_ go back to the army. He’ll die first, and he’ll take as many people with him as necessary on the way down.

“Who’s your friend? There any more of you?” He asks, nodding towards the glowering young man that has appeared out of the shadows, flanking the first with a mulish expression. He feels Rex step up next to him in response, and the other two tighten up formation at his back as best they can around their missing pieces. He swallows, pushing the grief away.

“That’s none of your -” The second man starts.

“Peace, Anakin.” The ginger haired man tilts his head up towards the canopy. “You can come down, Ahsoka.”

Far above them there’s a sigh and a muffled curse, before a short, slim figure drops promptly into their midst. Cody doesn’t jump, but he’s pretty sure that’s just because he’s already so hollowed out and empty, battle fatigue gnawing at every inch of him. You can’t be surprised by much when it feels like the world has already ended.

Behind him, he hears Fives curse. The elf rolls to her feet, and he notes the two short swords, the snarl on her face, and beneath it, the same bone deep shock he feels in his soul. She’s young, he can tell that much, young and afraid, and it makes him pause.

Boil shoulders forward. “What the fuck were you playin’ at? Were you gonna ambush us, huh?” 

He puts up his arm, automatic, and the ginger haired man mirrors him as the girl lunges, catching her deftly by the back of her armour. 

“Only if you’d deserved it!” 

“Oh, I can make us deserve it -” 

“Boil!” Cody snaps, turning to look at his brother. The expression on Boil’s face carves through his chest, all shattered edges, and he knows what he’s seeing, what he’s thinking. He turns the hand on his shoulder and leans in, tapping their foreheads together. Boil holds himself rigid for a moment, then crumples into the touch, exhaling roughly. “It’s not their fault.”

When he lifts his head it’s to find the ginger-haired man eyeing him warily. With his heart rate slowing in his ears he looks at him anew, at the blue armour, the griffon emblazoned across the chest, the staff strapped to his back. 

“You’re Grey Wardens,” Rex breathes, beating him to the punch. The man smiles bitterly. 

“Guilty as charged. So perhaps you can understand why we might be a little distrustful at the moment.” 

The man at his side scoffs. Cody’s heart sinks, solid as a stone, and he closes his eyes. Grey Wardens...just what they need. He doesn’t know what in Thedas the Teryn was thinking when he pulled the troops out and left them - and the Wardens - to die, and they have his sympathy for that. But his concern is his family, whatever shreds are left of it, and it seems that wherever the Wardens go, trouble follows.

They are so close to rejoining their clan, so _close_. The nearer they get, the more fierce the longing for those familiar sights and smells, hands that reach out in welcome rather than recoil in fear. He knows that what he’s dreaming of no longer really exists - that it died with Waxer and Echo several hours ago in that thrice-damned ruin, but...he can’t stop himself straining for home all the same. 

“Guess it is true what they say,” Boil mutters behind him. “The Grey Wardens really will take anyone.” 

Despite his red-rimmed eyes, Fives grins. “Looks like the set up to a punchline. If two mages and an elf walk into a tavern…” 

The elf growls, the torchlight just catching the edge of her lips and glowing off dark skin. There are tattoos across her cheeks and forehead, though he can’t make out what of. She’s Dalish, then, and he wonders briefly which clan agreed to give her up to the Wardens, at such a young age, too. From what he knows of their people, and their fierce guardianship of their children, they wouldn’t have given her up easily, or given her the Vallaslin so early without cause. There’s a story there, no doubt. 

He elbows Fives, keeping his touch gentle. Too hard and Fives will shatter. 

“Why stop us, then? Why not just let us be on our way?” he asks, more defensively than he means to. 

“Trust me,” the sulking man says, crossing his arms over his chest. One hand glows silver, and after a second Cody realises that it’s _made_ of silver, replaced by metal. “We wouldn’t have, if we weren’t _lost_.” 

He throws an accusatory look at the ginger haired man, who grimaces back at him. The elf’s lips quirk a little.

“Well what makes you think we can help?” Rex asks, gruff, one shoulder still knocking Boil back into the pack. “We’re just some stragglers, same as you.”

“Well…” the ginger haired man trails off, reaching up to rub the back of his neck. “We couldn’t help but notice you rather look like you know your way around.”

Cody lifts his sword again, a pang of fear racing through him. “You’ve been following us.” 

“As I said...it hasn’t been a good day for blind faith,” the man says, cautious. “Can you not understand that?”

Cody doesn’t move an inch. The man sighs, then sticks out his hand.

“Fine, let’s start again, shall we? My name is Obi-Wan Kenobi. We need help finding passage out of the Wilds as soon as possible.” 

He’ll reflect on this handshake many times in the months to come, when he’s knee deep in Darkspawn, demons and politics, and wonder if this was the second that things truly started to go wrong. In the moment, though, he just thinks that Obi-Wan’s hands are strangely calloused for a mage. 

Ignorance, as they say, is bliss.


End file.
